The State Bar of Georgia filed a formal complaint, charging attorney Christopher G. Nicholson State Bar No. 543275 with violations of Rules 1.15 I b, 4.1 a, 8.4 a 4, and 9.3 of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct. See Bar Rule 4-102. As a basis for these charges, the State Bar alleged that Nicholson represented a client with respect to an automobile accident in which the client had been injured, and after the client died, Nicholson also served as a temporary administrator of his estate. On behalf of the client and the estate, Nicholson asserted claims for the injuries that the client had sustained, and Nicholson negotiated a settlement with two insurance companies. In connection with that settlement, Nicholson signed an affidavit in which he represented that all medical bills arising from the accident had been paid in full. That representation, however, was false, and Nicholson knew it to be false. Indeed, a medical facility in which the client had been hospitalized had not been paid in full, and it had filed a statutory hospital lien in the amount of $11,734 for medical services provided to the client. The false affidavit induced the insurance companies to pay the settlement funds to Nicholson on behalf of the estate, and yet, Nicholson did not use the settlement funds to satisfy the hospital lien. The medical facility later sued the insurers on the lien, the insurers filed a third-party claim against Nicholson, and judgment was entered against Nicholson for the full amount of the lien and attorney fees. Nicholson, however, failed to pay the judgment, he refused to respond to post-judgment discovery, and he eventually was held in contempt for his refusal to respond to discovery. Three of the violations with which Nicholson was charged are sanctionable by disbarment.
Nicholson failed to file a timely answer to the formal complaint, and by his default, he admitted the facts alleged in the complaint.1 See Bar Rule 4-212 a. Nicholson filed a motion to set aside the default, but the special master2 denied his motion. The special master then set a hearing for the limited purpose of receiving evidence of aggravating and mitigating circumstances. In the weeks leading up to the hearing, Nicholson exchanged a number of e-mails with the special master and counsel for the State Bar. In several of these e-mails, Nicholson conveyed his contempt for the disciplinary process in general, and in others, he signaled his contempt for the special master in particular, flinging personal insults, unsupported accusations of misconduct, and conspiracy theories along the way.3 Moreover, on several occasions, Nicholson attempted by e-mail to correspond with the special master ex parte about the merits of his case. Even after the special master directed Nicholson to cease writing to her ex parte about the merits, he persisted in sending e-mails about his case without copying counsel for the State Bar.
